Old Style, New Style
Dec. 2nd, 2021 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThe doctor who came to give my mother her covid booster apologised profusely for ringing the doorbell twice- and continued in the same vein: "Sorry, sorry, sorry." How very different from the magisterial doctors of my childhood. They commanded, she deferred.
And I was going to say, "How very refreshing," because I don't like authority figures, but then I went a little deeper and thought how those imposing, self-confident old doctors- whose medicine was probably rubbish- almost certainly cured a lot of people simply by convincing them of their mastery over disease. They may have been bluffing, but very few of their patients were going to call them on it. They were, in effect, placebos in human form- and placebos- to the despair of mainstream pharmacology- have been shown to work- sometimes just as well as the drugs they're ghosting.
The doctor arrives in the darkened sickroom, he takes up a lot of space, the dim light catches on his eyeglasses and the links of his heavy watch-chain. He deploys the mystic tools of his craft- thermometer, stethoscope- and speaks words of power. He prescribes you some worthless stuff in a bottle but his presence has been reassuring, calming, convincing. You believe in the slop he's given you because you believe in him- and the placebo effect kicks in and you rally.
So then I asked myself what faith you would place in a doctor who apologizes all the time?
And I was going to say, "How very refreshing," because I don't like authority figures, but then I went a little deeper and thought how those imposing, self-confident old doctors- whose medicine was probably rubbish- almost certainly cured a lot of people simply by convincing them of their mastery over disease. They may have been bluffing, but very few of their patients were going to call them on it. They were, in effect, placebos in human form- and placebos- to the despair of mainstream pharmacology- have been shown to work- sometimes just as well as the drugs they're ghosting.
The doctor arrives in the darkened sickroom, he takes up a lot of space, the dim light catches on his eyeglasses and the links of his heavy watch-chain. He deploys the mystic tools of his craft- thermometer, stethoscope- and speaks words of power. He prescribes you some worthless stuff in a bottle but his presence has been reassuring, calming, convincing. You believe in the slop he's given you because you believe in him- and the placebo effect kicks in and you rally.
So then I asked myself what faith you would place in a doctor who apologizes all the time?
no subject
Date: 2021-12-02 02:25 pm (UTC)It left me with white coat syndrome and a profound mistrust of the medical fraternity.
When I was in my early teens I was desperate for help, but:
Dr (male) 1: 'bugger off, grow up and be a man' (difficult, that).
Dr (male) 2: 'I'll tell your parents and suggest they have you sectioned'.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-02 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-03 05:21 pm (UTC)Yes placebo, I hear that but also, a visit, he listened, he encouraged, the patient was acknowledge by the prescription, and he leaves.
Now the patient has a decision, maybe decides that was what he/she needed. And gets up and takes a bath or shower and gets dressed. Or of course, lays in bed, sicker than a dog and the medicine doesn't work!
Hard to say.
no subject
Date: 2021-12-03 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-03 11:06 pm (UTC)